1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toothed conveyor belt which uses a steel belt as a reinforcement core, as well as to a coating removal jig for the toothed conveyor belt which functions to remove a coating from the conveyance-surface side of a belt end portion in order to expose the core for performing cut-and-joint operations on the toothed conveyor belt.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 11, a conventional toothed belt A1 for conveying articles is composed of a belt body A2 and conveyance attachments A3. The belt body A2 is molded from an elastic material such as rubber or polyurethane. The conveyance attachments A3 are provided on the outer side of the belt body A2 in order to hold articles from behind. Meshing teeth A4 are formed on the inner side of the belt body A2 and mesh with an unillustrated toothed pulley.
In order to improve the tensile strength of the toothed belt A1, a number of steel wires A5 serving as reinforcement cores and extending in the direction of conveyance are embedded in the toothed belt A1 in rows arranged widthwise.
Since the conventional toothed conveyor belt employs a number of steel wires as reinforcement cores, carrying out cut-and-joint operations at an arbitrary position on the belt is difficult. Bonding or fusing cut ends of the belt is not necessarily impossible, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 58-207542 and Japanese Patent Publication (kokoku) No. 57-31016. However, this method is not suitable for frequent cut-and-joint operations. Also, since cut ends of steel wires cannot be connected, a deterioration in tensile strength at a connected portion is unavoidable.
Also, since the conventional toothed conveyance belt employs, as reinforcement cores, steel wires embedded in rows arranged widthwise in the belt body, a restoration force for eliminating a twist about the direction of conveyance is poor. As a result, torsional vibration of the toothed belt tends to occur during conveyance of articles.
Further, since conveyance attachments are bonded onto or fused with the conveyance surface of the belt body, replacing conveyance attachments or altering their positions is impossible.